


Birthday Surprise

by SilverRowan_Ivy630951



Series: A Day in the Life [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Birthday, Birthday Fluff, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Bucky Bear - Freeform, Captain America Steve Rogers, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers, Established Relationship, Family Fluff, Fireworks, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Fourth of July, Happy Ending, M/M, Other characters mentioned - Freeform, POV Bucky Barnes, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers's Birthday, Team as Family, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Winter Soldier Bucky Barnes, but aren’t in the story long enough to rate tagging as characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25106320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverRowan_Ivy630951/pseuds/SilverRowan_Ivy630951
Summary: It’s the Fourth of July and Steve’s birthday and he just wants a quiet day. No parties, no strangers asking for autographs, no Captain America. Just Steve and Bucky and peace. Unbeknownst to them, their family added one last thing to the list.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers & Avengers Team, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Avengers Team
Series: A Day in the Life [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1808131
Comments: 9
Kudos: 61





	Birthday Surprise

**Author's Note:**

> This is posted a little late but I was working on the Fourth. So happy belated Fourth of July and, to those outside of the US, happy July 4th. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. 
> 
> Also, the movie they watch (or that Bucky sort of watches) is Megamind (2010)
> 
> Feel free to point out any mistakes I missed (i.e. grammar, continuity, awful writing, etc).

Steve and Bucky were watching some animated movie that Steve had picked out. Bucky didn’t really pay much attention to it. He got the gist. There was a skinny blue bad guy with a big head and a long cloak who wasn’t really all that bad. It had good music, at least.

It was a nice, quiet evening. They’d decided to spend it in. Well, Steve had decided. And Bucky was prepared to let him have anything he wanted because it was his birthday. So, watching an animated movie that Bucky didn’t care all that much about after dinner was what they did.

When he’d asked Steve what he wanted to do for his birthday, Steve said that he didn’t want a party.

_“I just want to spend the day with you, sweetheart. There have been too many years we’ve spent apart, too many missed birthdays, missed_ days _. Why have a party where I have to be social and polite when I can just be with you?”_

_“You don’t want to go out and see fireworks or something?”_

_Steve had paused for a long moment looking torn before he shook his head. “Going out in public on the Forth of July would mean I have to be Captain America for people. It’s my birthday. I just want to be me.”_

And that was the end of it.

They spent the day in with just each other for company, promising everyone else that they’d see them all at breakfast the next day.

They slept in, cuddling in bed when they finally did wake up. Then Bucky ordered Steve to stay put while he went and made them breakfast.

They ate in the living room snuggled together on the couch because eating in bed was one thing that Bucky refused to allow. He'd always been against it and being the Winter Soldier for seventy years hadn’t changed that one bit. So, eyes lit with humor, Steve complied. He did drag the large, fluffy blanket from their bed to the couch, however.

It was nice. They ate and they talked quietly, and generally had a beautiful time.

There were a few things that had to be done regardless of the fact that it was a national holiday as well as Steve’s birthday. They needed clean clothes so they did laundry. And, after the birthday breakfast Bucky had made, they needed groceries. But that didn’t mean they wanted to go out and get swamped by people excited to see Captain America and the Winter Soldier, two former Howling Commandos, on the Forth of July. They got Jarvis to have their groceries delivered.

They also ended up mopping the kitchen floor after Bucky had accidentally knocked an entire gallon of orange juice off the counter while putting the breakfast things away.

Despite all that, despite still having to live normal life on a special day, it was a good one.

…Until the Avengers Assemble Alarm began blaring around their apartment.

With a sigh, they both got up and went to their room to change. What was a birthday spent relaxing when people’s lives were in danger?

“We’ll finish celebrating your day after this,” Bucky promised quietly, giving Steve a longer than normal pre-battle kiss.

They rushed to the elevator. Without a word, Jarvis got them moving.

But, when he opened the doors, they didn’t see the common room as they normally did. They were, instead, on the roof. The quinjet was already up and running.

Bucky was trying to figure out how bad the fight was going to be if they were briefing on the way instead of beforehand when something struck him.

“What…the hell? Why are you suited up?” Tony asked, bewildered.

“Why are you _not_?” Steve questioned looking around. No one but them was dressed for a fight. “The alarm went off…” He said it like it was obvious—which it was. Or, at least, it should’ve been.

“J, what the hell? I asked you to get them up here, not prepped for battle.”

“Pardon my saying so, sir, but you insisted they arrive quickly. I calculated that this was the most efficient way to achieve that.”

Tony’s mouth opened and closed a few times before he huffed out what might’ve been a laugh. “I’ll be sure to clarify next time.” Then he looked at them. “Sorry about that. There’s no fight anywhere.”

“But we do have someplace to be soon,” Natasha said, gracefully strolling down the jet’s ramp. “So, come on.”

Clint came up behind them and herded them onto the jet. They exchanged confused looks before Steve hesitantly told them. “I didn’t…” But he trailed off, unsure how to say what he wanted without hurting anyone’s feelings.

Taking a seat beside him, Thor patted his hand kindly. “You didn’t want a party. We know. Jarvis informed us.”

“We’re not going to a party,” Bruce added softly from the other side of the plane. “Don’t worry.”

Bucky could tell when Steve decided to just wait and see what came. He leaned back in his seat and let his shoulders begin to relax.

Taking a look around, Bucky decided that, even if everyone _had_ been suited up, he would have been able to tell they weren’t heading to fight. The Avengers were all there, but so was everyone else. Pepper, Jane, Darcy—even Betty was there. And Sam, who’d been down in D.C. celebrating the Forth with his family was there, too.

His eyes soon fell on some people he never would have expected to see on the quinjet. His brows furrowed. “Who are you?” The question popped out of him even though he could guess very well who they were—or, at least, who they belonged to.

The four children on the jet, ranging from around five or six to ten, looked at him. Even ignoring their skin color, there was a definite resemblance to Sam in their features.

“Oh,” Sam said, as if suddenly remembering that Bucky and Steve didn’t know the kids. “These are my niblings.”

“Nibblings?” Steve asked. He looked just as confused as Bucky felt.

Sam laughed. “Not nibblings, niblings.” He spelled it out. “It’s a portmanteau, a blend of niece or nephew and sibling. They’re my two sisters’ kids. They wanted to come along. Say hi you guys,” he said to the children.

Suddenly, one of them, an adorable little girl, was climbing up into Bucky’s lap. She had her hair done in the most intricate braids Bucky could ever remember seeing. They looked really cute on her.

Looking over, he saw that Steve was in a similar predicament. Neither of them knew what to do. Do they hold on? Do they ask the kids to get off? That would hurt feelings, though, right? Who wanted to hurt the feelings a couple of tiny, little children?

With a quick glance at Sam who gave them an encouraging nod, Bucky wrapped his arm around his little girl’s waist, securing her safely in place. Steve followed his example.

With a pleased look, Sam introduced all four kids.

Steve leaned over to him with a small, mischievous smile. Close to his ear so that no one could hear his words or read his lips, Steve quietly purred, “Bucky Bear.”

Bucky’s whole face went red at that. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Nat raise her eyebrows and Clint’s face turn into one of intense curiosity. He usually had better control of his expressions. None of them had ever seen him blush before.

Until now. Dammit.

Before Natasha and Clint could ask, however, and before anything else could happen, Tony interrupted. “We’re here!” Pressing a few buttons in the cockpit and murmuring something to Jarvis, the quinjet came to a standstill. Turning a hundred eighty degrees to face the other direction, he opened up the ramp.

Trying to figure out what was going on, Bucky stood. Instead of sliding off his lap, the little girl clung to him like a limpet. He walked to the dark opening as he slid his metal arm under her rear to support her weight. She obviously didn’t want to be put down.

With Steve beside him holding his own barnacle, they peered out into the darkened night. There was nothing in sight.

“What’s going on?” Steve asked.

“A birthday surprise,” Pepper said coming up beside Steve. Wrapping an arm around his back and giving him a side hug, she suggested they settled down on a thick blanket someone—Darcy, maybe?—had just spread out. “It’ll begin in a couple of minutes.

With that answer, which completely failed to answer Steve’s question, they sat in the middle of the blanket with their little clinging monkeys. Everyone else set themselves down on random lawn chairs that had been brought along.

Two minutes later, fireworks lit up the sky right in front of them. It was beautiful. With the jet a safe distance away, they watched the bright flashes of color explode. The children—and at least half the adults—oohed and aahed at the display.

Being the closest and with the most sensitive noses, when smoke began to enter the jet, Bucky and Steve started sneezing. Tony murmured to Jarvis and an air screen quietly activated at the edge of the ramp, keeping any smoke from getting in.

As they watched to the white noise of the air screen, Steve relaxed back into Bucky’s side. Wrapping an arm around him, Bucky kissed the side of his jaw.

Turning his head, Steve said quietly, “I did want fireworks. I just didn’t want to be Captain America so I could watch them. Thank you.”

No one said anything to that but Sam reached forward to squeeze his shoulder. “Happy birthday, buddy.”

“And happy Forth of July,” Tony added softly. The sentiment was echoed quietly by the others.

As the children fell asleep in their arms, as their found family sat quietly around them, as fireworks lit up the sky and cast warm light against Steve’s skin making him almost seem to glow, Bucky’s heart filled with warmth and overflowed with joy and love.

He tightened his arm around the man who’d been the most important to him for most of forever. Tilting his head to lean against Steve’s, he took a moment to think that this had turned out to be one of the best days.

He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve this life, this loving family, but he was so glad.


End file.
